Pollution, disasters, wars, scandals…We are constantly bombarded with signs of an inevitable end and we are scared of consuming our precious planet. Looking at the photos below, I know there is still hope for a better tomorrow.
The hills of Lucca, Italy:
A crystal mine in Mexico:
A sandy beach on The Virgin Islands:
Everytime you start a new relationship, you are faced with a big challenge: finding an appropriate nickname for your partner. You might ask what is wrong with the regular name although you already know the answer to the question. Like everybody else you were single once and rallied against the shameful nickname calling game. You abused your “couple” friends in any romantic setting and ripped your ears to avoid the “agubugu cugu”s flowing around. Yet, deep down you agreed with them. Calling your lover with his/her first name is most of the times plain boring, uncreative and cold, especially on the phone. In my opinion, the plain name, once used multiple times during a conversation (even with a possessive adjective), creates an undesired tension, seriousness and dominance over what is supposed to be romantic, a little childish and playful.
Nicknames are essential to keep the relationship playful. Yet, picking one or even a few is much harder than it seems. That is why the first few weeks of the relationship is reserved for the trial & error period where each partner tests out the nicknames picked for one another. Baby, sweetheart, love and honey are the safe universal approach. All the other possibly humiliating-if-pronounced-in-public nicknames are the real dealmakers of the game. The trick is to use as many as possible (from vegetables to baby blurs), avoid the ones used by other “couple” friends, observe the reaction of the partner and see if it is significant enough to be reused.
Love is fun right? Yes it is.
I am a disaster when it comes to remembering favorite artists’ names. Even though I get auction results from major houses like Sotheby’s regularly and skim through them to pinpoint the favorable works of art, my brain rejects permanent storage of essential information. So, I decided to make a note of my favorite pieces/artists in the hopes of overcoming the short memory loss.
The most recent pick is Karel Appel from the Sotheby’s Contemporary Art Auction that took place in New York on 22 September 2011. Appel, as I found out, is a Dutch painter who was born in 1921 in Amsterdam and passed away in 2006 in Zurich. This contemporary artist lived his life in between America, France and Japan and was greatly influenced by the American poet Walt Whitman. As it is apparent in Whitman’s works, Appel was moved by individualism and his view grew stronger in the aftermath of World War II. He became the founder of the Cobra Group which celebrated the complete destruction of the past and cherished the survival instinct of the now.
The thing that struck me on Appel’s “Portrait of Mr. K” is the use of color and the detailing of the brush strokes. From afar this piece looks like a casually completed draft, but as you get closer to it you become aware of the math behind each move. The orange, although not a preferred color, brings life and warmth to this abstract portrait and so does the red flower. The thicker brush strokes on the other frame gather the attention on the face: an apparent piece of heavy emotion and subjectivity.
Portrait of Mr. K was sold by Sotheby’s a few days ago for USD 74,500.
Starting from Bodrum and sailing through the Aegean for 5 hours, you set foot on an enchanted island. Waves and winds apart you leave the Turkish soil to sail into Symi, a massive naked rock sprouting out of blue waters. Following the coast you make your way into one of the most popular ports between Turkey and Greece. Luxury boats, most decorated with Turkish flags, shamelessly display their comfy lengths along the shore. During high summer season, they quickly fill up the tiny parking lot starting sharp at 4 p.m. to be protected from strong winds. On the shore is a tiny town of multi-colored houses squished and topped together as high as the eye can see. This is the place you will run into on a movie screen where the casanova secret agent will chase the bad guys away and start smooching with an Angelina Jolie-type Greek supermodel.
There is something for everyone at Symi. Yacht owners/renters who are out of alcohol and tobacco run into the duty-free shop to splurge on the cheapest vodkas and cigars while the ladies mingle through the overpriced jewelry shops. One can go through the whole town in a day including stops at the legendary churches/monasteries. ATV rentals are available for the cool thrill riders. And once all the unavoidable touristic schedule is done, there are numerous restaurants to choose from for the chill summer dinner. Yet, if you still insist on partying, there is nowhere else to go but Manos’. Depending on the night and the mood of the owner you might get the chance to break some porcelain plates and get drunk to Turkish beats (of course with an extra addition to your bill). Make sure you make a reservation long before your arrival.
Wrapped in a bright yellow, artbeat Istanbul makes its first appearance to the public in the Lütfi Kırdar Complex.
Similar to all the openings I have been to so far, the event welcomes guests from all different backgrounds with a diverse set of reasons for attendance: The old wealthy couple looking to expand on their art collection and be pampered by the gallery owners; Their not so eager friends accompanying them and weighing the benefits of spending “that much” in art; The off-the-edge artists and the art professionals fishing for an interview with one of the TV crews; The confused newly weds hoping to find heartwarming pieces to decorate the blank walls of their new home and get some subtle perspective on the ever-so growing art scene; The clean cut, sexy yet bohemian young crowd prepped up to run into some friends, chit-chat and expand on their social networks. Each character has a major role in giving the art on the floor a purpose, a life. Being around such a bright united crowd in a city of major culture clashes makes one feel even more welcome and reminds what Istanbul has been long yearning for.
The event consists of two floors with the ground floor reserved to local and foreign art galleries and the lower floor reserved for massive private projects. Both are loaded with impressive pieces. No maps are provided at the information kiosk. Yet thankfully the booths on the ground floor are numbered, making it harder for the visitors to wander off (something I tend to do a lot and hope to avoid everytime). Most of the pieces on display are considerably large. Most of the tags are not informative enough: listing the materials used on the piece and giving a short bio of the artist is always helpful and appreciated. I get pulled to works of Mehmet Ali Uysal, Aslımay Altan Göney, Yağız Özgen and Özgür Korkmazgil. The well-hidden prices are tough to assimilate: the average is around 10,000 TL and goes well above EUR 400,000.
Being informed of all the hard work that went into making this very first of many-to-come-event possible, I can’t do anymore than emphasizing my appreciation for bringing so much vision to a city that lives by it. Like any other newborn project, artbeat has lots of room to grow but promises to be one of the leading art events in Istanbul because of its social network, strong sponsors and well-chosen location. I hope the people behind it will have the guts to take it up again next year.
A 4-hour, no-intermission jazz concert with almost no entertaining stage performance; a surprisingly dull worldwide famous ballet on a sizzling hot, windless summer night with nothing more than a black stage and white tights: I was on the brink of giving up on the whole concert scene if Tarkan didn’t come to rescue.
The undeniable creator of “mucks”, the genius behind the groovy daring love songs was gone for too long. I must have been in my early teens the last time I saw him live on stage. It was last night he came back to greet the Istanbul crowd once again at the Harbiye Theatre. Fully packed, fully anxious we waited for the first boom, hoping desperately it wouldn’t be a slow song taken from the ancient Turkish Melodies (another genre Tarkan is undeniably good at). We were prepped to leave during the intermission if there was no “şıkıdım” in the air. Our prayers must have been heard as Tarkan started the night with “Gül döktüm yollarına”, a hit song from one of his older albums and never let go of the dance beats and the same long due energy: his friendly gestures, his humble attitude on top of his incredible success.
Yes the stage could have been better decorated. Yes it would be good to have some cooler audio entertainment. Yes it would be great to see 10 more belly dancers instead of the one amazing who swept us off our feet. Despite all the “coulds” Tarkan managed to pull hundreds of tough-to-please Turks off their chairs and made us dance to his legendary lyrics. That is why last night, he reminded me again why he is our superstar. Do not miss his Istanbul concerts if you can get tickets. The show goes on until Monday, September 12th.
Little Britain has been around since 2003, but thanks to my good friend I found out about this British comedy sketch-show only a few weeks ago. She must have somehow forgotten about it and now that they are reunited she can’t stop referencing memorable quotes in any occasion. The hilarious Little Britain revolves around a few exaggerated characters (played by the comedians David Williams and Matt Lucas) such as Bubbles Devere who depict the ways of life of various classes within the British Society.
Each episode is comprised of multiple 5-minute sketches where one or two main characters interact with the so-called everyday people and take the viewers on a hilarious run. The target is to reveal the general problems of minorities through a magnified glass and a hilarious satirical tone. The impeccable portrayal of the clash and sometimes the similarities between the exaggerated and the normal is what makes this show a must for me.
I am going through the 2nd series right now and can’t stop laughing. My favorite characters so far: Bubbles Devere, Maggie and Judy, Marjorie Dawes, Linda Flint.
Here is a teaser for you. University counselor Linda Flint interacts with one of her students:
There is a long list of studies analyzing the status of comfort zone in human life and no matter how hard the researchers try there is never an easy way to overcome the resistance to changing the habitual. There is a contentious love affair between the mind and the body, leaving us right in the middle of the war zone. The mind makes all the decisions and the body resists any change in routine. That is why we require extreme willpower to adapt to a new behavior. The pull to adapt to the change feeds on the customary leading to temporary isolation and despair. The body’s stubbornness becomes more apparent when we force a harder regime into our daily life. That is why the work week right after a sweet vacation seems even more unbearable. We pull ourselves out of the bed early in the morning with an extra bag of stones on top of us. We drag ourselves near the water that feels even more colder than it ever was. The legs have never been as heavy as we walk to the car, the bus or the metro. The day has never been as slow and our appetite for food has never been as big.
The first work week after a 10-day vacation: yes, I was stuck right in the middle of a vicious war this morning.
